Kribaby

Party Animal, Rockstar, Businessman? Who ARE you and what is YOUR brand?

The blogosphere has been abuzz recently with commentary on personal branding. The concept of Personal Branding (creating and building a brand around yourself) isn’t new – it used to be called reputation or image management and focused on how you presented yourself.

If you wanted to be seen as a serious business-type you wore suits, were clean-cut and spoke intelligently. If you wanted to be seen as the “cool design type” you wore jeans or trendy clothes to business meetings, had messy hair and maybe some dark rimmed glasses. This was creating a brand for yourself by managing people’s interactions with you to drive them towards a certain impression.

The premise of personal branding hasn’t changed online, we still want to manage how we are perceived by others’, and basic branding principles can be employed to achieve success.

There are 2 things that have changed dramatically.

First, in an online world there are more and more interactions to manage – Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Blog, etc.

Second, the boundaries between “personal” and “professional” are dropping. In the old world you could wear a suit to work and be taken as a serious business professional and party like a rockstar on the weekend with your friends. The groups were distinct, and your image/reputation/brand with each of these groups was separate.

Now employers look you up on Facebook, your blog is read by personal and business contacts and your Flickr (or Photrade) photos are publicly viewable. The wall that many worked so hard to maintain between personal and professional is crumbling in an online world. Your boss can see the same things as
your friends.

What this means to personal branding is the need to be consistent is greater. In the increasingly transparent online world it is difficult if not impossible to manage one reputation for work, one for friends and one for family.

Your personal brand needs to be reflective of who you REALLY are. You can’t be one person for your clients and another for your friends because they find you, track you and interact with you in the same places.

When I first got online I ran into this problem. I had only used the internet socially – a search for me turned up “party pictures” with my friends and some random myspace blog posts – generally about events involving crazy behavior.

Now, I have made a more conscious effort to “brand myself” or manage my image/reputation online. I still have fun social content posted, however it is balanced with content that is more reflective of other sides of my personality (like this post).

Don’t abandon who you are – balance it – to promote the right brand/image/reputation for yourself.

If someone you have never met looked you up online, who would they think you are?

Are Interruptions the best way to engage?

I just read a wonderful article in AdAge about how Marketers need to Think Differently in the world of internet marketing. The basic point was that many large marketing spenders are used to spending on Advertising, yet in internet land, Advertising is but one of many vehicles and it may not be the most effective.

This is similar to many writings by Seth Godin about interruption marketing.

In the old world, companies got attention from consumers by interrupting their intended activity with an advertising message – commercials in the middle of your TV program, ads in the magazine that you were trying to read. In the new world, users have more control of their medium – they are becoming better at ignoring interruptions – TiVo, Pop-up blockers, Satellite radio, Banner Blindness, etc. How, oh how will marketers get through to them?

Marketers have a tougher job. Without interruption marketing they really have to get the right message to the right person at the right place at the right time, in the right way. Wow. What does this mean?

At Blog World Expo one of the speakers (anyone remember who??) demonstrated the concept with this example:

If I’m taking a hike in the forest I don’t want to see your billboards advertising water, I don’t want you to hand me a coupon for $1 off your water. I want to be left alone to hike. However, after an hour of hiking it would be great if someone offered to sell me a bottle of water.

The point? When I am online trying to get through my Facebook messages, I don’t care about the new Shampoo that is streaming ads into my friendfeed. If I was looking at an invite for a cocktail party and an ad came up for a sexy new dress on sale at Victoria’s Secret there is a good chance that I would click though.

Take Apple (the example used in the AdAge Article) – they don’t need to spend a ton of money in online advertising because they have such a powerful brand that consumers actually go looking for them, and Apple lovers constantly write about them. Apple doesn’t shout at you with pop-ups about their new iPhone when you are stalking that hot girl on Myspace – they create a community of people who love their products and they have a killer website with great content that users actually seek out.

For every product and brand there are times when your customers are receptive to your messages, and possibly even seeking you out. Where are you then? Do you spend your time and money shouting at them when they don’t care instead of having a conversation when they are actually interested?

When Irish Eyes are Smiling.....

I love St. Patrick's Day... There are many, many reasons, but here are my top 3.

1)  I am an Irish Citizen.
How you may ask?  I thought you were Canadian?  I was born in Canada - first generation Canadian.  Me ma (Irish slang for Mother) was born in Dublin Ireland, and Immigrated to Canada when she was a wee lass.  Making me eligible for Irish Citizenship....

       

And I use this as my identification on St. Patrick's Day.  Shockingly (is that a word?) it doesn't appear to phase many bouncers.              
   

2) Guinness, Irish Carbombs...... drink and be Merry.
Oh yes - Green Beer and Irish Carbombs are the staples of St. Paddy's Day....  At first the thought of Irish Cream and Guinness creeped me out, especially after seeing the curdled nastiness in the bottom of the Carbomb glass.  But after the first taste of the creamy-goodness I was sold!

3) Everyone is Irish on St. Paddy's Day
This is actually a fact.  St. Paddy's Day is among the best for making new "friends" as being Irish = being drunk and loving everyone.

OK - Well maybe not loving "everyone".               

Is there more potential for Social Media Marketing?

I spent today reading a PR2.0 post by Brian Solis and following the links through to the Bokardo blog (my first time there) by Joshua Porter where a discussion about social media marketing was well under way.

What is all the fuss about?

Joshua points out that social media amplifies opinions about your products, it doesn't turn bad opinions about your product into good ones.  You can leverage social media to get feedback, listen to the feedback, improve your product and start positive conversations - the key is that you improve your product.  The point, as he puts it is that good results "happen(s) as a result of having a commitment to improvement, not simply because you implement social media tools."

While I agree with all of this, I think that there are still other opportunities for marketing companies to leverage Social Media.  It isn't just to use social media as a feedback tool - that is but one of the many marketing objectives that may cause a company to engage in a social media strategy.

Marketing objectives can range from creating awareness to generating new customers to building loyalty and preference among existing customers.  Social Media has a place in all of these objectives - the problem is finding creative ways to achieve these objectives.

A GREAT example of a Social Media strategy aimed at user acquisition was oovoo and the my oovoo day execution from Crayon.  They asked a number of people who were active in social media and marketing to host discussions on oovoo, and in return donated to The Frozen Pea Fund.  This clever execution created much buzz in the social media sphere, and created both awareness and trial for oovoo.

The point is, that with good executions that leverage social media and the community vs. force themselves, uninvited into the space, companies can use social media for far more than a feedback conversation (not that this use isn't valuable).  Social Media marketing requires creativity and a non-intrusive style of marketing, which is new to organizations who are used to old media.

Anyone know of any other great social media marketing campaigns?

Best Superbowl Ad Recap

Miller wasn't in the superbowl ads (probably since Bud appears to have exclusivity on beer ads for the superbowl), but they found a cleaver way to get in on the superbowl ad action without spending millions of dollars.

My fav quote from this recap "Two very expensive ads for water.  Water don't need to be fancy.  If I want flavored water I suck a lollipop".....

I guess you don't have to pay millions of dollars to get some superbowl ad love.

"Common guys, we got some common sense to deliver".  Well put.

Tips for Yahoo

This guy is my new favorite online personality.  Absolutely ridonculous.

In follow up to the post on Microsoft acquiring Yahoo, here are some great tips.  My Fav - "You got $44 Million Dollars?  Buy a country.  Buy Liberia.  Lets see you try to monetize Liberia!".

High quality here people.

The Case for Online Advertising - Part 2: Measure Shmeasure

I previously posted about the three dirty letters in social media marketing - ROI.

At the CMO Leaderhisp Forum the VP of media sales east at Facebook said:

-- ROI and social nets: “Return on investment” is probably the wrong thing to be looking for. Instead, the acronym should stand for “return on involvement,” Arrix said. The usual standard of audience “reach” is too limited when it comes to social media and “things like click-through rates don’t cut it. Return on ‘involvement’ looks at what users are saying about your brand. For example, are users taking your message and sharing it with their friends? Every client we do business with, we tell them, ‘You have to divorce yourself from what you’ve done before.’”

This is probably a somewhat controversial point of view since marketers don't know how to measure "involvement" or how to turn "involvement" into preference or purchase.  Is there inherent value in "involvement"?  What does that mean?

IMHO, Involvement is a measure much like Awareness.  You get involved with consumers, become a part of their decision set, and when they are looking to make a purchase in your category they think of you.  Furthermore, involvement can be a great way to spread word of mouth - if your message is compelling, interesting and portable.

Whether you agree with "involvement" as a valid metric or not the reality is that marketers probably do need to adjust their measures when looking at online marketing and especially social media.  Typical Reach, Awareness, Recall measures won't likely capture the potential value that developing a relationship can create.  Social Media suffers from some of the same challenges as Word-of-Mouth or PR in this regard.  They key, IMHO is to be flexible on metrics and look for results over time - including more "equity" based metrics - i.e. what qualities are associated with my brand due to my social media/interactive efforts?  Am I creating a more favorable impresion?  Equity metrics move slowly over time and often aren't measured as a part of interactive campaigns. 

Lets face it - Social Media and Interactive are still relatively new mediums.  It took marketers decades of test and learn to deliver significant ROIs on traditional mediums like TV, Print and DTC.  Measuring returns is VITAL to the success of any campaign, the question is are you measuring the right thing?

Click here to see part 1 of this posting.

Social Media "Friending" Etiquette?

Note to Reader: This is a bit of a rant, don't hold it against me but I'm curious what other people think.

I "left" Myspace because of harassment from 1) Random guys (At least a few times a week I got messages telling me I was hot or asking for my number or making dirty suggestions- seriously, does this even work??) and 2) Sleazy marketing companies offering me low credit or the chance to win an ipod.  AKA - Myspace became SPAMSPACE. 

Facebook now appears to be heading down the same road.  I am accosted with 1) App spam and 2) Networking SPAM.  I define networking spam as people who message me because "I noticed you were in the same group as me (generally business related), so we should be friends". 

1) App Spam - this stuff is sent by my friends.  It reminds me of the people who STILL forward me the please to forward an email chain on to get Little Sammy a wheel chair or because Microsoft is tracking the email chain and will pay you $500 if you forward it.  Seriously.  Unless you REALLY think I will like it - STOP SPAMMING ME.

2) Networking Spam - Friend requests sent by people who I don't know who want me to be one of the 1000+ members of their friends group so that they can spam me with stuff I don't care about and look like they are super connected and have lots of friends.  Unless there is really a legitimate reason for the friend request (beyond we are both in the PR 2.0 group - perhaps and we live in the same area, worked in the same place, attend the same conferences) I don't really see the need to be your Facebook Friend.

Perhaps part of the problem is *my idea* of the *rules of engagement* on Facebook.  For me, Facebook is a place to connect with my friends (i.e. people who I have a relationship with, either in real life or on line) or to meet new people who I *genuinely* share an interest with.  If I friended everyone who I had *something* in common with I would have millions of friends, and would probably lose track of what my actual friends are doing (which to me is the point of being on Facebook). 

In my mind "we both joined the same group" isn't a legitimate reason for a Friend request (note the word "FRIEND" request).  To me, Facebook is a place where my friends write random things on my wall, post crazy pictures and I can connect and reconnect with them.  If somebody wants to join my "business network" then request me on linkedin, or "follow-me" on Twitter.

I think that on social networking sites the nomenclature of the request should guide the choice of how to connect:

• Facebook = Friend Request = For Friends
• Linked in = Join My Network = Work Networking
• Twitter = Follow = No relationship required

Don't get me wrong - I'm a friendly person and I love meeting new people and developing relationships (both online and offline). I follow people I don't know (who interest me) on Twitter and I have made a number of friends through these online connections.  I just think that different social media tools should be used differently.  And yes, I know that I don't have to accept anyone as a friend, however as the number of random friend requests increases I'm sure to miss some genuine friend requests.  Also, do I seem anti-social by not accepting?

I'm sure that this is likely to create some controversy (I recently had a heated discussion about this).  Thoughts anyone?  Do I sound crazy here?  Is there social network etiquette?

Microsoftr?????

I posted on the Photrade blog last night (something I should admittedly do more frequently) about the Microsoft acquisition of Yahoo, and therefore Flickr (Flickr is owned by Yahoo).

Based on the history of Microsoft acquisitions, and the performance of their own products (Vista anyone?) it seems unlikely that Microsoft would improve the site.  Will they destroy it? 

Those who remember the Microsoft acquisition of Hotmail remember the numerous issues with reliability, security and overall data integrity that were created after The Big Blue Monster took over.  Another example is Driveoff.com (acquired in 2000), which is now a part of MSN Autos. Maybe Flickr will become part of MSN Photos (Where a GIANT phone ad popped up and accosted my screen)?

Flickr users have shown their creativity with a ton of great images and intense discussion about what this means.  One users asks "So what's next? what's out there like Flickr, better than Flickr, possibly not owned by some major corporation?" Hmmmm.......  Photrade anyone?

Oh yeah, and in case you forgot to celebrate, Vista celebrated its 1 year anniversary on Jan 30th.

The Case for Online Advertising - Part 1: Spend where they Consume

I initially tried to create one long post about online advertising, but as a part of my New Blog Resolution I thought I would break it into smaller bits and then put it all together at the end.

On-line media is important because of the % of media consumption it makes up (and this is ever increasing).  The data used below is a little out of date (2005), and I'm sure that both the consumption and advertising have grown since, but I would still expect that they are out of balance (more posts to follow showcasing some issues).

According to On-line-Publishers.org, in 2005 6% of advertising $$ were spent on-line vs. 23% of media consumption was on-line.

This brings the question to advertisers - what is holding you back from investing more heavily in this high growth medium? 

The Internet offers better targeting and CRM (customer relationship marketing) opportunities due to the enormous amounts of data that some sites have about their audience.  In addition, most ads can be set in programs that provide targeting far superior to that achieved in traditional media.  In addition the net offers more formats of advertising (banner, video, pop-ups, ad-words, search, etc) that can be tailored to reach the right person in the right place at the right time.

With the Internet being able to stream other forms of media (IE. Internet movies, TV and Radio) it will become an increasingly important media channel.

The question to marketers is where are you spending your $$?  Is it where your consumers are spending their time and $$?  Are you prepared for media consumption on-line to grow?